Events in Japan impacting global trading markets

Global trading markets are sliding in reaction to last week’s earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan, including plummeting prices for pork, one of Iowa’s top exports. Financial analyst Jim Tausz, in the central Iowa town of Clarion, says the disaster is impacting all markets and there won’t be a fast recovery.

“Don’t think we’re going to see a rebound right away,” Tausz says. “Typically, when you have a huge, drastic event such as this, what you find is that event has to play out and that’s where we’re at in this market. I think it’s going to go down further.” Japan has been the world’s top importer of American pork.

Tausz says Iowans who are invested in certain commodities might want to consider selling them in the wake of the devastation, especially with what’s happened to the Japanese nuclear power plants. “Those of you that are invested in uranium stocks right now, we got out of those shortly after this whole thing broke,” Tausz says. “The downturn in uranium stocks has been nothing less than dramatic. Don’t let the bus run you over. Get out of the way and get out of things like that.”

Still, he says the situation is also creating investment options in other areas. “Coal would be an opportunity to look at,” Tausz says. “China is putting a lot of nuclear plants in, however coal is still their main way of producing electricity and it may bring even more coal into the picture.” On the plus side, gasoline prices may actually drop slightly as crude oil prices have been gradually falling.